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Union files claims Nissan broke labor law as ballots counted

JEFF AMY, Associated Press
Published 10:10 p.m. CT Aug. 4, 2017

In this Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017, photo, Nissan employee Casteal Foster speaks during a comment period at a workers' rally at the UAW Canton, Miss., headquarters, near the Nissan vehicle assembly plant. In voting that begins early Thursday, Aug. 3, some 3,700 direct employees at Nissan Motor Co.'s car and truck assembly plant in Canton will decide whether they want a union. The polls close at 7 p.m., local time on Friday. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)(Photo: AP)

CANTON - As ballots were being counted in an election to determine whether the United Auto Workers will represent employees at a Nissan plant in Mississippi, the union filed fresh allegations that Nissan broke federal labor law in its anti-union campaign.

The UAW filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board just as polls closed at 7 p.m. after a two-day vote to determine whether the union will represent roughly 3,700 workers at Nissan Motor Co.’s Canton plant.

The filing didn’t affect the tallying of votes; managers and union leaders expected results late Friday.

However, if the UAW loses the vote and the labor board rules in favor of the charges, the board could order a fresh election. The board has already issued a complaint against Nissan alleging other labor law violations that predate the election, but a judge has yet to rule on those. A decision on the new charges could be months or years away.

Among the charges, the UAW alleges that Nissan provided a faulty list of worker contact information. Nissan spokeswoman Parul Bajaj says the company provided all required information.

“The UAW is again launching baseless and unsubstantiated allegations against Nissan Canton in a desperate, last-minute attempt to undermine the integrity of the secret ballot voting process,” Bajaj said in a statement.

UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel had telegraphed the move Monday, saying that Nissan was violating the law and that if the union lost, it would be a “direct result of the unlawful behavior.”

“There are things you can do after the election to deal with this stuff,” Casteel said then.

The UAW has never fully organized an international automaker in the traditionally anti-union South, although it did persuade some maintenance workers to join at a Volkswagen AG plant in Tennessee. The UAW’s lack of influence among Southern auto workers has reduced its bargaining power when Detroit automakers lose market share and close plants.

Nissan has previously denied breaking any laws. Rodney Francis, the plant’s human resources director, said Monday that the company has a right to make its case to workers that unionization would hurt management flexibility and make the plant less competitive economically. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and anti-union workers blamed the UAW for layoffs and plant closings by Detroit’s major automakers.

“With the UAW, all you’ve got to do is look at their history,” said Tony Hobson, a Nissan forklift driver and outspoken union opponent.

For years, union organizers reached out to the majority African-American workforce in Canton, arguing that workers’ rights are civil rights. They pointed to reduced retirement and health benefits for longtime workers, and lower pay scales for 1,500 Nissan workers who began as contract laborers in recent years. The remaining contract laborers, as well as managers, engineers, clerical workers and employees of suppliers at the 6,400-worker complex, weren’t eligible to vote.

A 2015 study by the Center for Automotive Research found that Nissan paid an average of $44 an hour in pay and benefits, toward the low end of all automakers. Nissan has given pay raises since then.

Workers at Nissan’s plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, voted against UAW representation in 1989 and 2001, but this was the first election at the Mississippi plant. The UAW also lost a 2014 vote among all workers at Volkswagen in 2014 before winning a second vote among 160 maintenance workers. Efforts to organize other foreign-owned plants in Alabama and Kentucky have never come to votes.

Both sides shifted into a frenetic and highly visibly campaign mode after pro-UAW workers filed petitions seeking a vote in early July.

Kristen Dziczek of the Center for Automotive Research said that although the UAW was the underdog, odds were unlikely to improve soon, as President Donald Trump’s appointees take over the National Labor Relations Board. A corruption scandal involving union employees allegedly taking bribes from a former Fiat Chrysler executive also threatened to spread.